LEONID
ANDREYEV (1871-1919) became the foremost literary figure in Russia between the revolution
of 1905 and the communist revolution of 1917. Originally studying and training
as a lawyer, he abandoned that career soon after its beginning and dedicated
himself wholly to his writing. His first story,“In the Fog,” was published in
1902 and won him immediate critical recognition. His new career, that of an
author, had begun.

A pessimistic, moody man (who
had already tried to end his life by shooting in 1894), he soon turned
this dark sentiment over to an analysis of the predicament of the existentialistic situation
of mankind in a series of socially aware works that included To the Stars,
Savva, King-Hunger, and Anathema. Andreyev's works
centered on the life of the common man, the gray, humble soul, who in singular
represented humanity itself, a humanity confused and bewildered by being caught up in
larger forces while suffering in a state of isolation of one individual from
the other. Behind it all ran a sort of mysticism, that of a striving towards
a higher truth and state of being. Often, the author resorted to fantastic symbolism
that represented abstract ideals. His most famous work, He Who Gets Slapped,
eventually was adapted by Hollywood as one of the darkest and best film roles
for actor Lon Chaney, Sr.

Andreyev's
mind turned to the bizarre, the horrible, and the supernatural from time to
time, most famously in his short tale, “Lazarus,” that depicts the strange,
eerie homecoming of the famous biblical character. Less celebrated, but superior,
is his novella, The Red Laugh, an utterly harrowing and nightmarish depiction
of a sort of apocalypse that springs from the chaos, blood, and misery of Russia's
humiliating defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, in language that prophetically
echoes the horrors to come during the First World War. Centered on two nameless characters, the first a soldier narrator
and then later his civilian brother, The Red Laugh presents themes of
violence, war, madness, ghosts, and even the quite literal return of the dead.
From time to time, we meet the indescribably horrible Red Laugh itself...